Songs of Life iPod challenge
by msathenaxf
Summary: I finally managed the iPod challenge. Puckleberry.


Songs of Life - iPod challenge

Author: msathenaxf

Author's Note: Hope this works out all right. Oh my goodness this was hard! I even had to cop out on the Beatles of all things. Didn't want to cheat and skip, (although I can't blame anyone who did), but geez.... Anyway, hope you like it!

_I-pod challenge:_

1. Pick a character, pairing, or fandom you like.

2. Turn on your music player and put it on random/shuffle.

Write a drabble related to each song that plays. You only have the time frame of the song to finish the drabble; you start when the song starts, and stop when it's over. No lingering afterward!

4. Do ten of these and then post them

**Hot Blooded - Foreigner**

It was the end of junior year when Puck really saw that Rachel and Berry weren't the same people. For the first time, he was watching Rachel. And he found himself intrigued. Very, very intrigued.

Mr. Schue had again invited another glee club to perform, so they could all trade advice and thoughts or some shit like that. But it turned out that the glee club was from the high school that Rachel's former junior high fed into. So, many of the people from her eighth grade team were there. It had surprised everyone when her old friends swarmed her for hugs.

After, everyone left except for Rachel, who promised Mr. Schue she would close up. She was going to stay with some of the other team's singers and catch up. Curiosity got the better of Puck, and when he left, he turned right around to watch quietly from the hallway.

And then one of the guys put on a song Puck hadn't heard in years. Hot Blooded.

And holy shit, Rachel could dance. Like, sexy. Hot. This was not the awkwardness of Push It. This was…damn. He watched Rachel grind against the guy, watched him back her into the wall, only for her to flip and push him against it herself.

And even if Berry claimed to want nothing to do with that kind of fun, there was no way in hell that anyone could convince Puck that Rachel didn't know exactly what she was doing. And that she loved every second of it.

**Barber and His Wife – from Sweeney Todd**

Rachel picked Sweeney Todd specifically.

Most people probably thought it was the blood, the gruesomeness that attracted Puck. But Rachel knew him better than most people. Because what Noah felt, he felt deeply. When he was angry, he was furious. When he was sad, he was unreachable. And when he wanted to push someone away, he would. Except for the one woman who refused to back down. And that one woman knew that when Noah fell in love, it would be unquestionable, and it would be forever.

So she knew Noah would be drawn to the story of a man who felt so helpless to protect those close to him, a man so crazy in love, that he was driven to violent revenge.

He was quiet for most of the drive home, but outside her dorm room told her that he might be willing to check out Rent. Maybe.

**Fireball – Deep Purple**

When Rachel came to visit Noah at college in their junior year, he had been pleased with the comments he got about the hot chick visiting him. And really, with that little silk dress, the bright red making her skin glow, he couldn't blame them.

Except now, the guys had found out that he and Rachel weren't a couple, and that they really were just friends. Puck expected some ribbing for not 'tapping that' as one guy so eloquently put it. But when one of them began to dance with her, began to run his hand up her exposed back, and down her arm, it was a totally different kind of feeling.

Everything he had been denying for two years was abruptly solidified and he was able to put a name to it. Just talking to her made him feel better. Holding her hand set his skin on fire. Singing with her was heaven on earth. Puck didn't know what she had done to him, but in that second, he was hers.

And damn it, she was his. Puck cut through the crowd and pushed his teammate off her, glaring. Then he turned around, pulled her to him, and brought his lips crashing down on hers.

He took it back—_this_ was heaven on earth, and it set _everything_ on fire.

**At the Zoo – Simon & Garfunkel**

She stood outside the almost closed door, listening in. His soft voice carried to her ears, but wasn't meant for her. Instead, Rachel listened as Noah half whispered, half sang the song to their twelve-month-old son.

Tonight Rachel didn't hear him cry, and since she was normally a very light sleeper, she had a feeling that Noah just wanted to be with him. It wouldn't be the first time, she thought with a bright smile.

Of course their child would have an old rock song as a lullaby. But political connotations aside, it really was a perfect song to sing to a child. Plus, Noah sang it so smoothly. But the next day when he suddenly cried out "Zoo!" while throwing eggs into her hair, she couldn't help but raise her eyebrow at her laughing husband across the table.

**In the Car – Barenaked Ladies**

How much time had he wasted, he wondered. Months, for sure. Years? Maybe. Puck was ashamed to admit that he couldn't even put a number to all the notches in his bedpost, let alone names.

But for whatever reason, she forgave him. Actually, Rachel said there was nothing to forgive. It was his past. It was his past and it was a part of what made him who he was now. She could no more hold it against him than he could hold all her relationships against her. It was ridiculous.

Besides, they were together now. Now and forever. All those girls—and women—helped to shape him. They helped him to find what he liked and didn't like, and not just physically. He realized that he didn't like the girls that would hide with him in his car until two in the morning. He liked the girls that were willing to talk to him in the halls of school, willing to face off with him.

For a while that was Quinn, then someone else, and then someone else. But eventually they made their way out of the car and to each other, and that was all that mattered to Rachel.

**Lonesome Sundown – Tom Petty**

The night that Quinn miscarried was the night that Puck found a lifelong friend in Rachel Berry. He didn't really know it at the time, and he certainly would have denied it. But she was there for him. So were others, but she was the one that never left.

For months he was sad and angry, but she never wavered. She didn't get in his face, like she probably wanted, but she was always there. In the background, visible and available. He had lost so much to that one night of drunken idiocy, but apparently he got Rachel in return. At the time it didn't seem like a fair trade.

But slowly he realized that when high school ended, leaving Rachel Berry behind was going to be the hardest thing he ever had to do. Saying good-bye was next to impossible. He told her that, late one night on her front porch. She smiled at him softly, and placed a hand on his shoulder, and then told him there didn't have to be any farewells at all. She wasn't going anywhere. He didn't know what he had done to deserve this faithfulness, this kindness, from a girl that he had tortured. Rachel just smiled into his eyes and gave him a peck on the cheek. She'd see him tomorrow, she said.

Noah would deny it until his dying breath, but he cried a little on his way home that night.

**Prayer of the Refugee – Rise Against**

Rachel believed the old saying about learning something new everyday. And today it was just as true as every other day. But instead of a math problem, or a literature concept, she learned something a little different.

She heard Noah during lunch singing a song that she didn't know. Gathering her courage, she stepped into the music room and listened while she watched him play the guitar.

After, she asked him what it was. He was without a doubt surprised, but relished the idea of teaching Rachel anything about music. With a grin, he pulled out a few CDs from his backpack and shoved them in her hands as he walked by. Lesson One: Listen and learn.

So she went home and listened. And boy, did she learn. Rachel learned so much from the lyrics and it reminded her what music could do and be. But more than anything, she learned about Noah Puckerman. Because no one could listen to a band like this for _just_ the heavy guitar and drums. He was listening for the meaning. And that was a few days' worth of new things right there.

**Come Together – The Beatles**

This is one of those songs that's really catchy, but makes no sense, Rachel thought. At least, not to anyone born after 1975. But either way, she was having a blast singing along with Noah, Finn, Santana, and Mercedes in an impromptu jam session before school. Noah spun her around and pulled her to him, swinging to the music.

All five of them were smiling and laughing through the lyrics, and really, what else was there?

**Feels Like Today – Rascal Flatts**

Today was going to be a big day. It was the last day of waiting for life to come to her.

In a few hours she would be on the road to meet Noah at Ohio State and watch his game. Hopefully—although she didn't really doubt it—they were going to win. She was excited to see him. It had been a long time.

She had somehow managed to stay in touch with him throughout college. How, of all people, he was the only one from high school she was still friends with, was beyond her. Neither of them made it easy.

How, of all people, he was the only one she would ever love, was also a big question. There was no choice for her anymore, no reason to wonder if her feelings were true. Quite frankly, Rachel didn't doubt his love for her, either. But if he didn't do something about it soon…well, tonight she would push him in the right direction.

She was sure she could get a reaction out of him if she danced with someone else…. If the little red dress in her suitcase didn't do the trick first.

**Second Chance – Trisha Yearwood**

They closed out their wedding reception holding each other close as the words drifted over them. Her head rested on his chest, eyes closed. He wrapped his arms around her waist, a soft smile on his face.

Everything in their lives led to this moment. Every first kiss, every relationship, every break up. It brought them here. For every boy she dated, she would never let him go. For every girlfriend he slept with, he made love to her.

For so long, neither of them really thought they deserved the love they shared. But her smile gave him strength, and his laugh gave her faith. It was one of the biggest leaps either of them had to make, but after that first moment, they knew that there would be no hard landing.

So much had changed since they first met—they had changed. Changed, and grown into each other. And no one watching could doubt that these two people were meant to be together forever.


End file.
